Israel indicted three suspects for collaborating with Syria

Published August 5th, 2010 - 15:45 GMT

Three Arabs were indicted by an Israeli court on Thursday on charges they allegedly spied for and passed information to the Syrian Intelligence.

Three Arabs were indicted by an Israeli court on Thursday on charges they allegedly spied for and passed information to the Syrian Intelligence. Fada Sha'ar, his father Majd Sha'ar and Mahmoud Masarwah were to be charged with "spying, contact with foreign agents and passing information to the enemy." They were allegedly in contact with a Syrian agent, Madhat Salah, to whom they passed information and video footage of submarine activity off the coast of Haifa, Haaretz newspaper reported.

They allegedly planned to kidnap from Israel a man whom they mistakenly believed to be a Syrian pilot who defected to Israel in 1989. They allegedly planned to render him unconscious and return him to Syria.

All three of the suspects were arrested a few weeks ago by the Israeli police.

According to the charges, Madhat Salah used to live in Majdal Shams, a Druze village occupied by Israel in 1967 where the Sha'ar family lives, but moved to Syria. He allegedly has been friend with Mona Sha'ar since childhood. The suspects knew that Salah was working for the Syrian intelligence. They were in touch with him starting in either 2007 or 2008, prosecutors said.